holiday month

ive been away from home a lot lately. in istanbul to see friends and our old neighborhood in may. in finland for work in june. then i started summer holidays and went to portugal (Cascais) to meet with Hanna and Carilyn. we had an Airbnb booked for a week. then after returning me & doctor directly left for Barbados for almost 2 weeks. so i’ve worked on climate change hard i think, filling past 2 years quota as well.


i think we’ve really fallen in love with caribbean, although i still like south east asia more overall. Barbados was lovely; hot, humid, beachy, green…   it was a pretty impulsive choice as doctors new residence card arrive just in time and then we scrambled to decide. i had been looking at maldives before, but we enjoyed caribbean last year and knew that a texan couple (Mike & Trent) was going to be in Barbados and they'd been trying to lure us over too. so why not?

we returned last wednesday noon, and after i had a 2h nap (well deserved after staying up 24h) Miriam messaged me, she’d been at Heathrow trying to return home, but the flight was cancelled. they left her hanging and she came to stay with us. i was honestly pretty tired so hosting a guest was not at the top of my list but at the same time it’s been maybe 8-9 years since i last saw her and we’ve just been in contact now since june so there’s been a lot of catching up etc. Lufthansa fixed her up for a flight on monday, pretty horrible to have your flight delayed by 5 days…. but the airports and airlines are a shitshow now. i think after all this traveling i dont mind staying away from airports for a while. except Miss R's bachelorette party is in august so... im going for that of course. i am the maid of honour best woman, after all. 

me and doctor watched the BBC docu on Mo Farah. pretty crazy the stuff that happened. and very touching. im happy there is a new season of Blown Away - its at the top of my "light feel good reality tv" list. now is the perfect time to focus on that and other fun shows while i polish my nails and generally do some self-care. i managed to hurt my knee somehow on monday, makes stairs painful... but otherwise i can manage, just have to be careful. it'll heal.

i’m tanned as F***. despite using SPF50 and trying to stay in shade.

Sugar Bay pool in Barbados

Harrison’s Cave

beach!

Sugar Bay had a lovely library. there were even finnish books. i didn’t find anything for myself but did contribute! i left Doing Harm by Maya Dusenberry there. the book made me furious but it’s my favourite topic so. on return i ordered myself a new copy. then Miriam came and i gave it to her. and now i should order yet another one... but its money well spent.

 

we went on a catamaran tour as well, snorkeling with turtles and looking at shipwrecks. fun day.

 

 

the yard of our Airbnb in portugal.  we just chilled at the flat and caught up on things, we all live in different countries so dont get to see that often. a lot of wine was consumed while playng The Mind and 20 Questions.

Bath yesterday. cute town. we went to Thermae Spa, only natural hot spring spa. the water was so WARM omg i loved it (33-35c). 

can i just say the mobile network in UK is so crap. even in some central areas of London, like by the Shard. but Bath.. thats a whole another level.  in th center of the town the mobile network would come and go...  screenshot below. and these people are talking about building 5G. but what good is that when the network itself is so crap? sometimes i wish i just had FUNCTIONAL 3G.

(tilted pic of) a phone booth in Bath

something i cooked today. not big into cooking as everyone who knows me knows, but sometimes...  pasta or salad. this salad had:
potatoes (microvaweable...)
chickpeas
onion
kale
cherry tomatoes
cucumber
feta cheese
+sauce of yogurt, olive oil, garlic, pepper, dill